Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My Version of Melissa's Flexible 4-Step Chicken

I recently got Dish TV and discovered the Food Network. I had it on cable before but it was only on the downstairs TV which I just never watched much. Now I get dish TV on all my TVs. I mostly watch TV when I'm in bed, what can I say?I just LOVE the Food Network. I got hooked on the reality "Next Food Network Star" a few weeks ago and then Sunday they had a marathon rerun so I could watch every episode, which I did instead of napping. And I was rooting for Melissa, the homemaker who was looked down upon by the other professional chefs. And she ultimately won. I liked the second place guy, Jefferey, but Melissa always made things I would actually try. Like her Flexible 4 -Step Chicken. What I love about this is that you can switch ingredients around.I made these last night - BEFORE I found the recipe. So this recipe is a mixture of HER recipe, what I did and what I WOULD have done differently (I needed a little more liquid, and more orange juice.3 Boneless Chicken breasts (she has 4 but I only had 3 in the package and there were only two of us-and I did not cut or butterfly them)

tablespoons olive oil

1 Egg

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp pepper

1 red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 Cup Chicken Broth

1/4 cup white wine

3 Oranges (I used small clementines because that's what I had but I would suggest more oranges to get more orange flavor)

1 to 2 tablespoons butter

When I dredge chicken in flour, I like to egg it first to give it more of a batter. Don't be afraid of the cayenne pepper, it just gives it a little spark. Because I cooked the whole chicken breast, it took longer and I found that lowering the heat, adding some wine in the pan and putting the lid on it after a few minutes, it cooked it without burning or drying it out. When the chicken is done, take the chicken out and I put it in the oven at 200 to keep it warmThen cook the onions and garlic in the same pan. I added some more olive oil. When the onions are transparent and caramelized, then add the liquids, turn up the heat and cook for awhile until it starts to get thick. Take it off the heat and add the butter.This was just delicious. I could not believe how good those onions were. And the chicken was very moist.We had green beans fresh from my garden with this. I like to nuke my green beans in the microwave with a little water for about 5 minutes (we like our beans on the crunchy side), add some butter, lemon, garlic salt and lemon pepper. My daughter said we should try this recipe with pork and add apples to the onions.